"3rd Circuit sticks up for public's interest in deal between whistleblowers": Alison Frankel's "On the Case" from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this post today.Posted at 04:53 PM by Howard Bashman

"Wikipedia's NSA lawsuit heads to federal appeals court; With rights groups, suing over agency's internet snooping": Andrea Noble of The Washington Times has this article previewing a case argued today before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

"Arkansas court upholds gay marriage birth certificate law": Jill Bleed of The Associated Press has an article that begins, "Arkansas' highest court on Thursday threw out a judge's ruling that could have allowed all married same-sex couples to get the names of both spouses on their children's birth certificates without a court order, saying it doesn't violate equal protection 'to acknowledge basic biological truths.'"

"Reid predicts death of filibuster; In a POLITICO interview, the departing Democratic leader blamed his party's 2016 debacle on Jim Comey and said no big changes are needed": Seung Min Kim, Burgess Everett, and John Bresnahan of Politico.com have this report.Posted at 03:35 PM by Howard Bashman

"No, Senate Democrats Can't Use The 'Nuclear Option' To Confirm Merrick Garland; Struggling to accept the consequences of electoral defeat, progressive activists are now desperately clinging to a wild conspiracy theory about how they can retain control of the Supreme Court": Sean Davis has this post at The Federalist.Posted at 03:28 PM by Howard Bashman

"Supreme Court Hears Arguments Over Pay for Collapsed Trucking Firm's Workers; Justices consider whether wages should have been paid by bankrupt firm Jevic Transportation before other debts": Katy Stech of The Wall Street Journal has this report.Posted at 08:30 AM by Howard Bashman

Access online the audio of two notable cases argued yesterday at the Fourth Circuit: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has posted online at this link (32.1 MB mp3 audio file) the audio of yesterday's oral argument in United States v. v. Jeffrey Sterling. My earlier post collecting coverage of the oral argument can be accessed here.

And you can access at this link (27.3 MB mp3 audio file) the transcript of yesterday's Fourth Circuit oral argument in United States v. Richard Schmidt. My recent posts linking to coverage of this case can be accessed here and here.Posted at 05:22 PM by Howard Bashman

"Could Democrats go 'nuclear' one last time before President Trump?" Today at "The Fix" blog of The Washington Post, Aaron Blake has an interesting entry that begins, "The Republican strategy of ignoring President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court this year paid clear dividends."Posted at 02:40 PM by Howard Bashman

"The Top Legal Stories of 2017": Online at The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin has a post that begins, "It's time for my semi-accurate, semi-serious (but always annual) list of predictions of the big legal stories for the coming year."

"Body Shops' Filing Error Ends 11th Circ. Insurer Suit": Matthew Guarnaccia of Law360.com has an article (subscription required for full access) that begins, "The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday said a group of automotive repair shops cannot reinstate claims against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. and other insurers over an alleged scheme to manipulate vehicle repair costs, shooting down arguments that the court was at fault for the lateness of their appeal."

According to the article, the filing error consisted of the appellants' failure to file the appendix on appeal within the time ordinarily provided for doing so.Posted at 01:06 PM by Howard Bashman

The news release also reports that "the selection committee, made up of federal judges and headed by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, also designated one of Newman's Second Circuit colleagues, Senior Judge Ralph K. Winter, to be the Devitt Award winner in 2017."Posted at 10:09 AM by Howard Bashman

"Lee v. Tam: Offensive Trademarks at the Supreme Court -- Speech Rights and Government Prerogative (A Series); Part Three: The Best Arguments for Allowing the Denial of Registration to Disparaging Trademarks." Erica Goldberg has this post at her "In a Crowded Theater" blog.Posted at 08:52 AM by Howard Bashman